I haven't read it since high school, so consider this with the due weight you'd give any recommendation by an angsty teen girl, but I really loved And I Don't Want to Live This Life, the biography of Nancy Spungen, best known as the bad news girlfriend killed by equally bad news punk rocker Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, written by her mother.

It's quite possibly utter tripe, but it has good reviews on Amazon. They can't all be from angsty teen girls, right?

I believe it's sort of half autobiography half fiction, but there's always Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. If it's anything like the movie, it's probably about as drugged out and emotionally troubled as you're going to get.

Jean Stein's Edie: American Girl, dealing with the life and decline of the troubled socialite/starlet Edie Sedgwick. It's told in a series of interviews with various people over the course of her life, which illustrates all the angles of her personality and behavior. Really fascinating and sad.

Jean Stein's Edie: American Girl, dealing with the life and decline of the troubled socialite/starlet Edie Sedgwick. It's told in a series of interviews with various people over the course of her life, which illustrates all the angles of her personality and behavior. Really fascinating and sad.

This is the book I opened the thread to recommend. Absolutely fascinating.

Please Kill Me is a fascinating read about the early punk scene in New York, from Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground, The Stooges and the MC5 in the 60's to the CBGB scene in 1980. Lots of messed up, drugged out people.

Long Time Gone by David Crosby. He tells a story about wandering off stage in Philadelphia to freebase cocaine, Stills and Nash frantically trying to find him. I was at that show. In Pittsburgh.
So even his memories are messed up.

Frederick Exley recounts his life as the son of a hero-worshipped high school athlete who is doomed to be a spectator not only of sports, but of life. From irresponsible drifter, to dreamer of impossible dreams, to drunkard, to frequent patient at an insane asylum, Exley carried baggage from his childhood through much of his adult life, never feeling he could escape the dark cloud of expectation that hung over him. When Frank Gifford, former New York Giants backfield star, is injured, Exley is jolted into painful realizations about his life, and a confession.

I thought Tony Fletcher's biography of Who drummer Keith Moon was very good. Moon definitely had major substance abuse problems, and Fletcher argues that he likely suffered from borderline personality disorder as well.

The book is titled Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon in the UK and Moon: The Life and Death of a Rock Legend in the US.

Keith Moon was the bad boy of rock & roll, the most manic member of an aggressive and fabulously successful band, a full-throttle hedonist who lived at the center of an unending party. He was also a musical genius who inspired whole generations of artists, a generous friend to nearly everyone who crossed his path, a guileless man of immense personal charm to whom the sweetest sound on earth was surf music. A generation after his death, Moon is still revered as the greatest drummer in rock history and the single wildest personality in an age of pop excess. Here is the truth behind the legend, the result of more than three years of research in which music journalist Tony Fletcher interviewed dozens of Moon's friends, colleagues, and associates. The result is an instant classic that brilliantly illuminates both the tender and self-destructive sides of this singular personality. This is the story of one of the most outrageous rock stars ever born -- and Moon is one of the greatest rock biographies ever written.

I enjoyed Carrie White's biography very much. She was a celebrity hairstylist in California in the 60s & 70s.

Quote:

Carrie White was one the most celebrated celebrity hair salon owners of the '60s and '70s, having styled the hair of Elvis Presley, David Bowie, Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn and Ann-Margret. She also dated Jack Nicholson and was sought after by Hollywood directors, serving as technical director on "Shampoo" and creating Nurse Ratched's infamous hairstyle in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

But beneath the surface of her glamorous life, White had buried a painful past, surviving abandonment, alcoholism and sexual abuse as a child, participating in gangs as a teenager, and having three husbands and five children before age 29.

I read Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar many years ago and was very taken by it. Plath committed suicide shortly after it was published and the book itself is essentially autobiographical although in the guise of a novel.

I've read Tommy Lee's biography too, but found the part where he was in jail the most interesting.

So I think I'm drawn to biographies about addiction, emotional problems, people living life on the edge and things like that. Are there any recommendations along those genres?

If you liked the Heroin Diaries, I highly recommend Slash, by, well, Slash. Hell of a lot of crazy drug and drinking stories, but a lot of cool stuff otherwise related to the various bands he's been in too

If you liked the Heroin Diaries, I highly recommend Slash, by, well, Slash. Hell of a lot of crazy drug and drinking stories, but a lot of cool stuff otherwise related to the various bands he's been in too

I read that one and it didn't resonate with me the way Nikki Sixx's biography did. Sixx was a damaged hedonist with a death wish. Slash almost seemed responsible by comparison in my view.

James Ellroy's My Dark Places, part autobiography of a paranoid depressed junkie, part murder mystery. His mother was murdered in his childhood and he was attempting to solve it. Ellroy also wrote LA Confidential, The Black Dahlia, and American Tabloid, among others. He's one of the best, and most disturbing, writers I know of.

Long Time Gone by David Crosby. He tells a story about wandering off stage in Philadelphia to freebase cocaine, Stills and Nash frantically trying to find him. I was at that show. In Pittsburgh.
So even his memories are messed up.

HA! I have to read that sometime. I was at the Pittsburgh show, too - it was my first concert! I remember The Band opened. Great show, probably BECAUSE he was so fucked up. Stills and Nash took turns doing solo material while the other one tried to talk him back on-stage. Strange occurrences like that, where the artists wing it, are more exciting than any planned production. Watching seasoned veterans making unplanned changes to make the most of a bad situation is a joy to see. Stills kicked much ass.

I recently read Ozzy's autobiography. I'd say he counts as a drugged-up, emotionally-troubled person. GREAT read BTW, and I'm not a huge Ozzy fan.

Keith Richards' autobiography wasn't horrible, but to be honest, I haven't finished it yet. It's probably a must-read for Stones fans, though he talks about other things a great deal more than I expected. I'm about 3/4th's of the way through, and it's sat like that for a few months while I read other things. I'll get back to it eventually.

Steven Tyler's autobiography - well, I don't know how it is, because I didn't make it ten pages. He's someone that doesn't use one word where a paragraph will do.

I haven't read it since high school, so consider this with the due weight you'd give any recommendation by an angsty teen girl, but I really loved And I Don't Want to Live This Life, the biography of Nancy Spungen, best known as the bad news girlfriend killed by equally bad news punk rocker Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols, written by her mother.

It's quite possibly utter tripe, but it has good reviews on Amazon. They can't all be from angsty teen girls, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ellen Cherry

WhyNot, I was going to suggest "Syd and Nancy!"

I Don't Want to Live this Life is an excellent read. I love this book. It shows the absolute frustration of a family dealing with a mental ill member who simply could not or would not be cured.

Jill Ireland's "Life Lines" deals with the mental illness and drug addiction of her and David McCallum's adopted son Jason.

Both these children were perscribed psychotropic drugs at a very young age. I've often wondered if the idea that "drugs are okay" can be destructive in the long run.

I haven't read it in eons, but Speed by William S. Burroughs Jr. is an autobiography of a very drugged out and emotionally troubled young man. How troubled? Well, he was probably born addicted to amphetamines; his father is one of the world's most famous junkies; his father also shot his mother when William Jr was 4; later being introduced to drugs by his father in Tangier, he was arrested as a teenager for stealing prescription pads to get amphetamine; and it doesn't get much more pleasant from there.

I haven't read it in eons, but Speed by William S. Burroughs Jr. is an autobiography of a very drugged out and emotionally troubled young man. How troubled? Well, he was probably born addicted to amphetamines; his father is one of the world's most famous junkies.

I came in here to list "Junky" by William S. Burroughs (Sr.)

It's a semi-autobiography, so parts of it are fictional, but more than enough of the reality is present to get a good look at the junky lifestyle of the 40's and 50's.